Evaluation of IFC’s Investment Operations

IFC’s evaluation system for investment operations is based on self-evaluation. Investment staff prepare Expanded Project Supervision Reports (XPSRs) for a random, representative sample of projects. IEG-IFC then undertakes an independent review of the project’s performance and the XPSR’s assigned ratings (and adjusts them if needed) to ensure that the prescribed evaluation guidelines and criteria are applied consistently.

The guidelines and templates that IEG-IFC provides to IFC staff who complete XPSRs is linked below. Guidelines are different for financial markets and non-financial markets (real sector) operations.

Through its evaluation framework, IFC applies relevant results measures to individual investment operations. IFC has three main indicators for ratings:

Project development outcomeis a synthesis rating of four indicators defining the quality of a project’s financial, economic, and environmental/social sustainability, and its contribution to a country’s private sector development;

Investment outcomeconsiders a project’s contribution to IFC’s profitability; and

IFC’s work quality is derived from three indicators measuring the extent to which IFC’s front-end work has met prescribed good-practice standards; its effectiveness in supervising the investment from the time it is committed until IFC’s loan is repaid or its equity is sold; and the quality and efficacy of IFC’s role and contribution to the project’s outcome.